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Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Halfway through my week off

Monday I mainly loafed around and shopped online.

Tuesday I compiled the raw wedding photo files for Jen so she can hopefully finally make us a wedding album, which will most definitely be even better than the one stupid TS would have done if he wasn't a complete loser.

Tuesday evening I made baked enchiladas out of our leftover fajita stuff for our dinner, and I made myself a very yummy margarita to have with that dinner.

Today, Wednesday, I did my hair and makeup after spending the morning compiling non-wedding photography, then I met Hannah for lunch at Cornerstone Coffeehouse.
After lunch I went to PennDOT to get my driver's license updated with the right name (it had a weird hyphenated thing going on with my maiden and married names in the wrong order), plus the added benefit of getting my motorcycle designation added to the license. While I was there I also got a Juniata license plate for the Malibu, the car I drove while I was a student.
Also today the Juniata cap I ordered Monday (see above) came from FedEx, so I'm all Juniata'd up for the year! Yay. And I have a decent driver's license photo where I don't look like I'm bald and wearing goggles, my name is correct, and I don't have to carry around an extra piece of paper to show that I can ride a motorcycle. Yay.
After PennDOT it was about 4:00, and I headed with my memory card full of pictures to Giant, where I spent the next 90 minutes or so going through everything and ordering prints. After a few regrettable mistakes, I cropped and enhanced and re-sized everything I wanted to, and ordered 321 prints (that number includes duplicates of some photos). After all that work, I also got a picture CD so that it saved all the edits I had made, so if I want more of any of these prints it will be easy to go back and get them. I had to pay for two CD's to fit all the pictures. BUT tomorrow I will pick them all up, and I will finally be able to fill some of these crazy photo albums!

Tomorrow I will start the day by walking the short distance to the car garage to pick up the Matrix from its oil change. Then I will go pick up my pictures from Giant, and come home to make myself some albums and sort everything by who is getting the photos. I will frame the few I have to give away, and then I will drive Beckie's long-overdue pictures to her house so they will be waiting for her when she gets home from school. Then I'll head down to Lebanon to spend Trick-or-treat night with my aunt and cousins, and I can deliver to Gommy her also long-overdue framed 5x7 wedding picture of me and Paul to display on top of her TV next to the 5x7 of Katy and Corey.

Friday perhaps I'll finally do a bit of the cleaning I have been planning to do all week. I suck at cleaning. At least I've been watering my plants.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Sunday, October 19, 2008

The weekend

I had a full weekend for sure!

Friday evening Paul and I had dinner at The Pizza Grille to use his $5 birthday coupon, and we saw Dennis Owens with his wife a adorable daughter.

Bright and early Saturday morning my Mom picked me up, and we did the Making Strides for Breast Cancer walk. This was my kind of walk - no pomp and circumstance, just meeting up with some friends, making a donation, and munching on a free Panera Bread Pink Ribbon bagel while we chatted and walked around City Island, across the Walnut Street bridge, up Front Street, down Front Street, along the river, and back across the bridge. I was home by 10:00 AM with plenty of time for some relaxing and housework before lunch. Here we all are after the walk:


Then at 2:00 on Saturday Paul and I headed to Hershey for Hershey Park in the Dark, in our opinion the best time to go: it's under $25 to ride all afternoon (plus $6 for parking), we get to ride all our favorite coasters without waiting in ridiculous lines, the weather is gorgeous and cool, and we can do as much in 4 hours as we'd be able to do all day during the summer. It's so much nicer. Then we came home and popped the Turkey Loaf I'd made earlier into the oven, along with a few baked potatoes, and had a nice hearty fall dinner. I then went to bed very early because I had a headache, but it was still an awesome day.

Here's the best pic I took, Paul behind me on the Swings with the Comet in the background:

Our favorite coaster is still Stormrunner, with the super-acceleration at the beginning. Fahrenheit was cool, but no where near as awesome as Stormrunner. The feeling you get when it shoots you off at the beginning just can't be matched by anything else. The initial up-and-down of Fahrenheit was really cool though, and it was also amazingly smooth.

This afternoon at 4:00 I attended the two kids' choirs at Trinity to play piano for them, which was a lot of fun. I liked the younger kids better, they are so cute...but mostly I'm in awe of Amy's ability to keep them all going and not even get impatient the entire time! She seriously has a gift. I couldn't be that calm and creative and happy all at the same time for 2 hours straight even if I was on Valium or had a lobotomy or something. She has them marching and doing motions to help them remember the words and to stay engaged, and it's pretty amazing.

Paul and I were hoping to go to the Greek Food Festival for dinner, but we were sad to see that we missed it! It was only Friday and Saturday for their Fall mini-festival. So we missed that, darn. Now we'll have to wait until next Summer for all the yumminess. Ah, well - luckily we have lots of leftover beef stew that Paul made last week. Really really really delicious beef stew.

Looking ahead, this is my LAST WEEK working at SAIC! Then I get a week off, and I start with EDS on November 3. On October 25 I'm having some SAIC people over for a fall picnic and drinks, and I'm going to use the neat mini-pumpkins silicon muffin tray I got at JoAnn Fabric's going out of business sale. Still thinking what to make in them, but whatever it is, it will be cool. Maybe a few different things that I can have a whole variety tray full of when they arrive! Also plenty of alcohol, of course, and I have a packet to make spiced hot apple cider as well. Should be a good time. Incidentally, what liquor could I add to spiced apple cider? Rum? Brandy? Hmm...

Oh, and my indoor bike trainer came to convert my regular bike into a stationary bike! I got the same one Hannah has, and she's been using it every day with great results. So that's my exercise regimen for the winter, since Paul and I weren't using our YMCA membership. I quit that, and we're going to use the money we're saving to split off my family's cell phone plan and get our own. And I am totally getting a texting plan so I can text with Han, Sarah, Jeneane, and Twitter. I have to see who else has texting plans too. I haven't decided yet whether I'll keep my current phone, the Cherry Chocolate which I still really like, or get a new one with the new plan to have a full keyboard. We'll see. I really might just keep the same phone, especially if it will save me some money. I actually would really love a blackberry pearl and a full data plan, but I'm totally not willing to shell out the cash for that yet...we'll see.

And then on November 7 I'm heading out to Pittsburgh with Hannah and her best friend Susan to stay with our cousin Katy and go to the Handmade Arcade craft festival on Saturday! I am super excited to take a road trip with my sister, and to finally see Katy and Corey's house! We paid for the early bird tickets even though entry is free later on, because this way we can go in the morning, beat the crowds, and we also get a cool bag to boot! Then we will have the afternoon and evening free for other Pittsburgh fun. Paul has some motorcycle thing that weekend, so he won't even miss me.

Time for dinner, bed, and getting started on my last week at my first real job! I am so excited I can hardly stand it.

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Work

So I got my job at EDS, I passed the drug test, and I officially start on November 3. My last day at SAIC is October 24. I am trying to work hard for my friend and coworker Sarah because it is going to suck the most for her when I leave - she is going to have more than 2 persons worth of work to do. I thought with the prospect of my brand-new job (which I am very excited about!) and some free time off between jobs during gorgeous late October that I'd be extra-super-motivated to work hard these last few weeks at SAIC...but in reality, I am feeling more frustrated and bored and lazy than ever! It's all I can do to focus on anything for ten minutes!! And now I have more to do this evening, and more tomorrow, and I just feel stressed and frustrated. I don't know why I can't feel excited and motivated when I only have 2 more weeks to go and I'm working to help one of my closest friends! Why don't I want to help her more? I need a swift kick or something. Sheesh.

In other news, come hear me sing on Sunday at Trinity's 11:00 service! We are going to sound really great. I really like the song we're singing, and it's in the best range possible for me, so as long as I can stay loud enough it's going to be lovely. Yes, despite my incredibly loud speaking voice I have a fairly soft singing voice. It's true.

OK. Now I have to do more work. At 11 pm. *sigh* ...Theoretically, this kind of thing will stop happening once I work at EDS. I can't wait...!